Duke Rejected

November 08, 1991

The White House's muted distancing from David Duke has finally given way to a full-fledged, and welcome, rejection of the Republican candidate for governor in Louisiana.

President Bush Wednesday criticized Mr. Duke's neo-Nazi sympathies, calling him a charlatan; he said that if he were a resident of Louisiana, he'd vote for the Democratic candidate, Edwin W. Edwards, on Nov. 16. Well done.

For the longest time, the White House message seemed to be only that Mr. Duke was not a real Republican; that he was more an embarrassment than a threat.

He is an embarrassment to the national Republican Party, of course. But, as a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan and a former American Nazi, and as the foremost white supremacist in public life, Mr. Duke is a threat to social order. He is one of the slickest demagogues to stride the political stage, which makes his racism all the more effective and dangerous.

When such a threat appears, moral leadership, not political worrying, is required from the White House. Mr. Bush has delivered.